Aganorsa Leaf Guardian of the Farm Nightwatch

By Tony Casas | October 7, 2019

Back at it again! With this amazing El Paso weather I just can’t help but crave the outdoors. This week I decided to head out back with an Aganorsa Leaf Guardian of the Farm Nightwatch paired with a bottle of Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout beer.

The Good Stuff:

The Guardian of the farm series was originally created as a collaboration between Warped cigars and Aganorsa Leaf, which was released two years ago. The Nightwatch was created solely by master blends Max Fernandez of Aganorsa Leaf as he wanted to create a more full-bodied version of the cigar utilizing a new Nicaraguan shade grown Maduro Corojo wrapper exclusively from Aganorsa Leaf. The rest of the blend features both binder and fillers from Nicaragua. The Guardian of the Farm Nightwatch is offered in four sizes, each named after one of the farm’s watch dogs: Rambo (4.5 x 48), Campeon (6 x 52), JJ (5.25 x 50 Box-Pressed), and the Orpheus (6 x 44). Each size comes packaged in boxes of 25 running between $8.25 and $10 as stick. I got mine over from our good friends at Cuenca cigars who have them in stock now.

• Size: 6 x 44
• Wrapper: Nicaraguan Shade Grown Maduro Corojo
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan
• Body: Full
• Strength: Medium/Full
• Price: $9.25
• Pairing: Goose Island 2018 Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout (14.9% ABV Imperial Stout)

Prelight:

The Aganorsa Leaf Guardian of the Farm Nightwatch starts out with a beautiful, rustic-looking orangish brown wrapper. The wrapper is laid over itself seamlessly while it showcases lots of very mild veins and webbing. The wrapper itself feels very thin and delicate while the cigar is packed nicely with only some very minor soft spots around the foot of the cigar. The cigar’s long, slender body leads up with a nice round, triple wrapped cap. The cigar features a folded-over foot where the wrapper leaf extends past the cigar’s foot and is carefully folded over itself. The cigar is polished off with a gorgeous, elegant white and gold band carrying the same Guardian of the Farm crest we found on the original version of the cigar along with a red secondary band with the Aganorsa Leaf crest and “Nightwatch” embossed in gold across the front.

The wrapper on the Aganorsa Leaf Guardian of the Farm Nightwatch gives off lots of sweet honey, vanilla, and spice aromas while the foot of the cigar cigar is much the same with only a tad more pepper in the spice mix. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces a ton of vanilla, honey, and sharp spice with some natural tobacco flavors.

First Third:

The Aganorsa Leaf Guardian of the Farm Nightwatch starts out with sweet honey, pistachio, musk, and strong cedar flavors with just a nice little black pepper punch, soft spice and earthiness. I am really enjoying this flavor profile right off the bat. The draw is flawless as each tiny puff kicks out a huge cloud of thick, white smoke while the cigar releases only a subtle amount of stationary smoke as it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is slightly wide with some very small waves leaving behind a tightly compacted trail of medium to dark gray ash which held on for almost an inch before giving way.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Aganorsa Leaf Guardian of the Farm Nightwatch and the flavors are still pouring on. Loads of sweet cedar, honey, pistachio and vanilla coat layers of spice, cinnamon, and natural tobacco. The retrohale brings the cedar and spice to the forefront and I find myself retrohaling this cigar quite often. The burn line is now dead even and much sharper as I close out the second third with only a very minor nicotine kick.

Finish:

Here in the final third of the Aganorsa Leaf Guardian of the Farm Nightwatch and I just can’t get enough of this cigar. Complex flavors of cedar, vanilla, cinnamon and musk surrounded by pistachio spice, and earthiness resulting in just an incredible flavor profile. The draw has been perfect the whole experience however I do want to note that this cigar does require a bit of attention as a few times it has almost gone out on my as I wasn’t smoking fast enough. The burn line is still even, and thin and while I had to keep it lit, I never once had to reach for my torch, just a few hard draws would get it going again. It too me an hour and a half to take this down to the nub and I experience absolutely nor harshness, nor extended heat.

Overview:

I really enjoyed the Warped Guardian of the Farm, but I have to say that the Aganorsa Leaf Guardian of the Farm Nightwatch is just completely on a whole new level. The flavor profile is complex and incredible and matched up with my personal preference beautifully. This is the perfect example of adding more body to a cigar without overpowering it with strength. The construction was flawless and the experience was perfect all while the price point is something I’d easily pay time and time again for this cigar. This is box-worthy for sure and makes for a perfect addition to a seasoned cigar smoker’s regular rotation. Really the only gripe I have about this cigar is that there isn’t many left in my humidor. That’s something I can easily fix though.

Pairing:

We all should be familiar with the Bourbon County Brand Stout lines by now. Brewed at Goose Island’s brewery in Chicago, Illinois this 14.9% imperial stout is aged in bourbon barrels with vanilla added and has been a beer lover’s favorite for years now. The beer leads with sticky toffee, sweet vanilla, cocoa, light coffee and brown sugar with a very sticky/heavy mouthfeel before finishing with even more sweet vanilla, cocoa, coffee and a nice bourbon punch. The vanilla, cocoa and brown sugar paired just beautifully with the flavors in the Aganorsa Leaf Guardian of the Farm Nightwatch while the spice from the cigar added a whole other dimension to the experience.